State voters could get a say on pot

Richard Lee has planted the seeds of a statewide pro-marijuana measure.

Fresh off their ballot victory in Oakland, marijuana advocates plan to submit a initiative to the secretary of state to legalize the recreational use and taxation of pot statewide.

“We’ve already hired a professional petition firm to take start collecting the signatures,” said Richard Lee, whose Oaksterdam University has been at the forefront of the pot legalization movement. He expects the effort to hit the streets in September.

The initiative, which Lee hopes to file Thursday, would make possession of up to an ounce of pot by adults legal throughout California.

It would also give cities and counties the option of allowing the cultivation, sale and taxation of marijuana within their borders.

“It’s patterned after Texas liquor laws, which leave it up to cities and counties to decide if they want to be ‘dry’ or ‘wet,’ ” Lee said.

The initiative would also leave open the door for a statewide per-ounce pot tax, something has already been proposed by state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.

The move to qualify the initiative comes in the wake of a special election Tuesday in which Oakland voters overwhelmingly approved Measure F, to tax medical marijuana sales in that cash-strapped city.

The statewide measure would expand the idea to include taxes on recreational-pot sales to adults.